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Thanks for your patience everyone regarding this mod. A lot of people have been posting questions to my website and in PMs and in other threads, so here's an update and some insight.

1) What's the the delay? WTF

- Making addons and mods for Arma 3 is my hobby. I'm a pretty busy photographer and filmmaker in my regular life and I really only get stretches of time when I'm on a rare vacation and don't have any other obligations or a girlfriend to spend time with. Does that mean that I don't take this seriously? No. I love the Arma modding community (for the most part) and love giving things away to people that they can enjoy as much as I enjoy working on them. Also, I changed graphics cards back in October and couldn't get the damn game to load for about 2 months.

2) What is the current status of the UDM?

- There are a few details I'm not going to go into regarding the development of this mod from it's Arma 2 concept through to today. Let's just say that there were a few features that were planned that won't make it to the final release. Having said that, here's my current list of features:

Buddy Breathing -

Buoy line from boat - CANCELLED: Replaced with throwable ropes in my Paddle Mod (ver 1.5) which does the same thing but much better

Underwater Flares - I'm going to try to get this working via inventory stuff as I've learned a few things about this

Limpet Mines - This is working pretty well, but I'm not happy with the collision between boats and the mines yet - some boats don't have good collision models and are a problem that I can't figure out how to solve. But the mines are an inventory item now, stored in backpacks.

Throwing grenades while on the surface of the water -

3) Why don't you finish one addon/mod before starting another one?

- When I start work on other addons or mods, it's because I've reached a point where I need to solve a problem with my current addon/mod, or I've gotten inspired to do something else while working on the first addon/mod. That sometimes leads to the creation of a new project which can sometimes delay the release of the original project. I can see how that would be frustrating for the fans of the first project, but they usually get the benefit of a second project as recompense. I'm a creative person. Creativity in its raw form can be somewhat erratic. Usually that's tied down by uncreative people who manage projects. That's how my job is where I am reined in by others less creative than I. But my hobby doesn't have to be like that. So it isn't.

4) What's the status of the Arma 2 version?

- I put the Arma 2 version on hold because a lot of problems I was having with the Arma 2 code, such as being able to know if you are underwater or not, if you were going to clip through the ground or not, the actual act of getting underwater, if you were able to breath or not, etc. were solved in-engine with commands such as underwater and isTouchingGround and stuff like that which were all implemented in the Arma 3 game. These commands don't exist in Arma 2 and won't work. I had created these commands myself through scripting in Arma 2, but they were never that good. And seeing them implemented in Arma 3, I knew the developers and I were on the same page finding the same problems and tackling them. The nice thing for them is that they work for Bohemia Interactive and can change the game engine. I can't. So Arma 3 came out and everyone still wanted me to finish the Arma 2 version. But I keep thinking, what's the point? Arma 3 is better in almost every way, there's diving implemented right into the game, there's diving animations in Arma 3, so I don't have to make them, etc. So as for now, the Arma 2 version is cancelled. Everyone playing Arma 2 still, consider upgrading to Arma 3. It's a much more developed game engine.

5) What's the ETA for the Arma 3 version? Will it ever get finished?

- I'm at a crossroads regarding this mod. Trini Scourge came out with his Diver Stats addon which added open circuit diving to the game. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's great and has many of features that I had planned on implementing myself. I've intentionally not looked at his code because I don't want anyone to accuse me of copying his work if I ever decide to release anything. But it made me step back and question whether or not I wanted to continue with my UDM since his dive computer and implementation of an open circuit system was one of my main goals and I think he did just as good or a better job at that then I could have. These projects are a lot of work and hopefully are enjoyed by lots of people. But if I don't see the benefits of something, I'm not sure I want to do the hard work part. I'm sure that makes sense to some and not to others who can't see past their own desires.

I've also considered releasing parts of this mod as individual "features" kind of like BI releasing DLC. I think this would be an interesting marketing strategy (I work in Marketing in the real world, kinda). And part of me wants to release the "finished" items now, instead of waiting to release everything together. Maybe I could make an "Underwater Diving Mods Series" of releases, like "UDM: Limpet Mines" or "UDM: Dive Light" or "UDM: Surface Grenades" or "UDM: Buddy Breathing". It's just a different way of packaging things which might make releases faster and more fun for the community.

6) Will you release a beta or give me early access or just release what you've done so far?

- I don't like doing this because then I get a ton of followup questions about "broken features". As it stands, I often make choices for gameplay with others disagree with and call "broken". Also, 12 year olds screaming for release dates and accountability over "promised features" and screaming about something being broken wears on me and makes me want to do something else like go ice skating in downtown Chicago. Let me put it this way. Have you ever played a game that was broken and that prevented you from moving forward with the game? It's not fun. It seems fun for a second until you reach the broken part. That's how game development is. People ask you to just release what you have if you aren't working on it. But I've seen others do that and it's rarely a good thing.

Feint's Final Thoughts:

As always, I'm working on quite a few things which I find interesting. The Paddle Mod is close to a big update with new cool features like the ability to throw a rope and stick it to a ship or another boat. I think it could lead to some kind of seaborne underway boarding mission or piracy mission. I'm also working on ground handling for Little Bird type helos. It's going perfectly well with just a few problems on aircraft carriers, where it would be most useful, frankly. I'm playing with making a dog, but working with AI is new to me and I might not. I've gotten a few requests to add more content to my Head Range Plus addon, specifically to non-aircraft. I've tried doing some more with tanks and had no luck at all. I've also tried making a working winch for helicopters, but winching people is very problematic (you have to basically get them falling before you can winch them realistically, otherwise they stick to the water/ground and break the rope). I've made a lot of updates to the Raven addon and will be releasing that soon. It got delayed because I wanted to see if I could implement CBA keys as they are a lot better than userconfig stuff. Oh, I've also implemented a few changes to XH-9 helicopters such as checklists, realistic starting sequences, and other stuff that is similar to TOH. I don't know why BI doesn't just release a TOH module for Arma 3 or let us use TOH content legally for Arma 3 (I asked them if I could port content over and they said no). But I got doors working well and the starting sequence is promising. Aerial refueling is probably dead as it was too complicated. But ropes would make aerial refueling more fun as the hose would move around more and you'd have to stay attached to it for real and really fly in formation. I don't think Arma's flight model is accurate enough to make this fun. I tried it and it was sooooooooooo hard.

EDIT: Oh, I'm also working on camping equipment. Basically, I'm trying to take advantage of things already in the game which have no current function. You can carry tents and sleeping bags and pillows and lanterns, you can drop the items and pick them up and move them, turn the lantern on and off or hang it in your tent, build your tent, put the sleeping bag and pad inside, get into them and sleep, wake up the next morning, go fishing with ropes, pull out fish and cook them, etc. Might be fun. It's kind of a back burner project.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Feint

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Dude im gonna make a "swim navigation board" for fun, SEAL style. If you think you can implement it into your addon, or standalone while swimming, ill gladly donate it to you once finished. Hope all is well and you had a safe and "relaxing" holiday :p

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Dude im gonna make a "swim navigation board" for fun, SEAL style. If you think you can implement it into your addon, or standalone while swimming, ill gladly donate it to you once finished. Hope all is well and you had a safe and "relaxing" holiday :p

I just painted the ceiling.. :cool:

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I've been wondering if you were moving forward with this. I was going to be doing something similar with my Sub/Diver Module in my SpookWarCom project. I was just going to give people the option to use Trini's DiveMate when they used one of my SCUBA tanks. I'm excited to see this released. I would rather use yours than spend countless days cranking out my own. You have some great stuff!!! You are miles ahead of me.

I logged on and saw the hit on my subscriptions for this thread... almost spilled my Mt Dew. ;) Keep up the amazing work. The community raves about your projects.